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Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

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401–410 of 966 posts

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#401
post #312

100% atheism. Was raised some kind of protestant I forget which one, and derived tremendous spiritual and psychological relief when I realized all of that was absolute nonsense at the age of 9. I knew I was gay at the time and wouldn't come out until I was 18 or so, but my life just got a lot easier when I removed religion completely. I also recall discovering increased moral agency -- as a Christian I had been taugh…

For forgiveness, you need to actually be contrite and willing to amend your life. God loves you and wants you to heal but you need to be open to it. Also he is just, so he doesn’t exactly let you do whatever you want as you imply. There are always consequences to our actions. Further, I would argue that without living with God, you are actually freed from responsibility in moral judgements, because of the belief that…

I don't mean to start a "religion versus atheism" comment battle, but just wanted to discuss the idea of moral responsibility. For context, I grew up in a Christian (Eastern Orthodox) household and attended church for some twenty-five years of my life - that is to say, the perspective of a believer is not lost on me, even though I am now agnostic.

For me, responsibility is irrevocably linked to the idea of care - caring for those other than myself makes me responsible for my actions, inasmuch as they impact those around me. That ranges from those I love (my partner, family, friends) to strangers on the street that I nonetheless "care" for, by recognizing our shared humanity. Care itself comes from the idea of finitude - specifically, the idea of fragility of life in the face of our mortal existence. If I'm being poetic, "living rightly" means a life that is spent caring for others, strengthening the bonds that link us in face of death. The consequences of our actions are felt precisely because of the finitude of our lives - all we've got is each other, and our responsibility is towards one another.

Religious morality of the other hand is best expressed in the story of Abraham being asked to sacrifice his son (it's no wonder the three major religions are called "Abrahamic"). For a deeper dive into the idea, I recommend reading Kierkegaard's retelling of this story in Fear and Trembling - to recap however, God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, they travel to mountain where Abraham binds Isaac and lifts up the knife to kill him. At the last moment, God interrupts Abraham, and a ram is offered as sacrifice instead. This story, perhaps one of the most well-known stories from the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, goes directly against the idea of responsibility in moral judgments - Abraham does not falter, for he fully trusts his Lord, giving up his son in devotion to God's command. The idea of care or responsibility for ones actions is superseded by the belief that the will of God is, in fact, more important than caring for those around you. A true belief in an everlasting life presupposes a detachment from the world (as any cursory reading of writers such as Saint Augustine shows), in a way protecting and insulating the believer from truly coming to terms with the consequence of their actions (in this case, murdering their only son).

To sum it up, I just can't get behind the idea that a final judge is somehow required for having responsibility in moral judgments. In fact, the opposite is true - only through the secular faith that there is no better everlasting world can we form meaningful relationships and take full responsibility for our actions.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shaolin Wahnam - been at it for about 17 years now. :) We don't have a syllabus for Chi Kung but here's a list of some of the groups of exercises taught and some brief theory as to their uses: https://shaolin.org/general-2/five-animal-play/play09.html I mostly stick with 4, 11 and 12 on that list - find the more advanced things still a bit overwhelming for more than occasional practice. Happy to provide more detail i…

I have a few questions but you don't have your email in your hn and profile. :-)

Sent you an email.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#403

100% atheism. Was raised some kind of protestant I forget which one, and derived tremendous spiritual and psychological relief when I realized all of that was absolute nonsense at the age of 9. I knew I was gay at the time and wouldn't come out until I was 18 or so, but my life just got a lot easier when I removed religion completely. I also recall discovering increased moral agency -- as a Christian I had been taugh…

> I had been taught I could simply confess whatever and it would be forgiven I still remember the day at Sunday school when we had to confess. I was a good kid. I had absolutely no idea what to confess. I consulted my Mom who told me to "make something up". And thus my first sin, that I can remember, was lying to the priest.

This is the most catholic story I can imagine.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#404

100% atheism. Was raised some kind of protestant I forget which one, and derived tremendous spiritual and psychological relief when I realized all of that was absolute nonsense at the age of 9. I knew I was gay at the time and wouldn't come out until I was 18 or so, but my life just got a lot easier when I removed religion completely. I also recall discovering increased moral agency -- as a Christian I had been taugh…

Why even bother forgiving yourself if morality is just a human construct and there is no judgment in the afterlife?

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#405
post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a contradiction. “Spirit”ual. You cannot be Spiritual without belief in Spirit. It is in the word itself. You can be a good Atheist however that is mostly in line with good spiritual practices. Atheists seem to want it both ways. To believe in nothing but also define themselves as “Spiritual”

> Atheists seem to want it both ways No, they don't. I understand how you'd like to imagine there are a bunch of atheists out there coveting something you have, but that isn't the case. Reread the root comment and try not to take "spirituality" so literally.

It is of no consequence to me what others think or what they covet. They are allowed to their beliefs as I am to mine.

You are the one who thinks that you own the ‘I’ all to yourself. You see yourself as a separate individual. That is clear.

Spiritualism is spiritual of Spirit. You call yourself an atheist. Do I then say that Atheists believe in God or some form of it? Ridiculous. Come off of it.

We can change the words to make it easier on people and stop wasting time with petty semantics.

Lets call it people who believe in nothing and then there are people who believe in something, a higher intelligence or a soul or spirit.

Enough of the semantics.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#406

Not long ago in my new apartment after breaking up with a long time girlfriend I had an amazing experience while meditating. The odd thing was I never really meditated back then. Something just told me to do it. I was led on an internal journey that showed me some things about my self. One, don't turn away from uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. Two, don't judge yourself. Three, the ego or this idea of myself is an…

> "Bad" feelings have lost their edge. When I sat with the feeling I discovered there is nothing "bad" about it. [...] With this I have become lighter, freer, happier and more at peace with the experience just as it is, right here, right now. I'd like to give a heads up that this can and may come crashing down[1]. The 'Dark Night of the Soul' is a very real phenomena, and it can happen out of nowhere -- just a normal…

Great point. I have forgotten about this. There were at least 2, one heavy, one less so, periods early on of pretty profound depression. The first lasted maybe 2 or 3 days. It was a dark hole of just a profound sense of loss. I was taken back at first and questioned what I was getting into and stopped meditating for a few days but I got through it. I wish I could edit my comment to add this warning. Thank you for bringing this up.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#409

100% atheism. Was raised some kind of protestant I forget which one, and derived tremendous spiritual and psychological relief when I realized all of that was absolute nonsense at the age of 9. I knew I was gay at the time and wouldn't come out until I was 18 or so, but my life just got a lot easier when I removed religion completely. I also recall discovering increased moral agency -- as a Christian I had been taugh…

I read quite a bit about Stoicism - an ancient Greek school of philosophy founded at Athens by Zeno of Citium. The school taught that virtue, the highest good, is based on knowledge; the wise live in harmony with the divine Reason (also identified with Fate and Providence) that governs nature, and are indifferent to the vicissitudes of fortune and to pleasure and pain. The Stoics elaborated a detailed taxonomy of vir…

There is good new book on this “Sapien Ethics” by Godwin

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#410
post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a practicing Hindu. Yes, I’ve heard of all of those and Bhakti is but one school of thought. But Hinduism has always had space for other schools of thought. Sankhya is one of them. It does not have a lot of adherents but it does exist. About many God’s in Hinduism - It’s one God (Brahman or Truth) but its different forms as perceived by humans based on the agency/actions of God.

Yes you are right. There are materialists coming out of the Vedas. But what you have just stated here is that you are not an atheist at all. In fact quite the opposite. You are that.

I don’t practice Sankhya. My ancestral / traditional school is Advaita Vedanta which is actually opposed to Sankhya :). My point being not all atheism is recent or non-sprititual. Most eastern faiths have a rationalistic component / school of thought which is atheistic but continue to rely on methods of meditation and logic to better oneself.
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